ROLLING, PLANKING, AND HOEING 181 



wings, sweeps and other special weed-killing de- 

 vices should be a part of every farm equipment; 

 if used in time they should reduce the area that 

 needs hoeing to the parts adjacent to the rows. 

 Here is where the hoe must be used, especially if 

 it is found desirable to ridge the rows. With some 

 crops the weeds that start between the plants can 

 be killed when very small by using the spike- 

 tooth harrow or weeder over the entire surface. 

 But after the plants are too large for this it is a strug- 

 gle to keep down the weeds in the rows. They 

 get a start close to the plants and gradually en- 

 croach upon the cultivated area. It is then time 

 to "cut out" the rows; and it is likely the work- 

 man will have to pull some of them by hand, so 

 closely are their roots and stems entwined with 

 the crop. 



Good and Poor Hoeing. The easiest and most 

 rapid way to hoe is to barely skim the ground 

 with the blade at a very slignt angle to the sur- 

 face, scarcely disturbing the soil, but cutting off 

 the weeds. The hardest and slowest way to hoe 

 is to strike the blade into the ground at a sharp 

 angle, lifting and turning two or three inches of 

 soil. The former is preferable on the lighter and 

 looser soils, the latter on the heavier soils and 

 especially when the ground about the plants has 

 become compacted by rains or tramping. Some 

 men use the noe as they would a pick; it does little 

 good in this way so far as conserving moisture is 

 concerned. As a general rule, hoeing, like culti- 

 vating, should be deeper in spring than in summer, 

 and for the same reasons. 



It is as much an art to hoe well as to cultivate 

 well, and sometimes just as much depends upon it. 

 Not one man in ten gets as much out of a noe as 



